Margherita Regina from TOY CITY by Toy City
Just before the turn of the 20th century, my family left Northern Italy for the United States. I didn’t know much about their journey, until my song writing partner, Steve Shaheen, brought to my attention that it might be possible to obtain Italian dual citizenship based on the fact that my grandfather had been born in a small village outside of Turin. For me this began a long journey of requesting birth, death, marriage and naturalization records for my family across multiple countries (the US, Italy, Brazil). I made some wild discoveries that had previously only been rumors among my cousins. I confirmed that one of my great-grandmothers was actually born in South Tyrol, Austria (later annexed by Italy after WWI). She met my great grandfather on a coffee plantation in Brazil. They returned to Italy to get married and then emigrated to the US. They landed in a rural part of Colorado on the Arkansas river where my grandmother, Margherita Regina Vezzetti was born in 1897. There is no existing federal, state or local government record of her birth. The only documentation that does exist is a baptismal certificate at St. Michael’s Church in Canon City, Colorado. After years of hunting down documents, this baptismal certificate was the final piece in a puzzle that would allow me access to Italian citizenship. But dealing with a small, rural Catholic church in Colorado proved to be difficult. The church lady at St. Michael’s was unhelpful, and dismissive of my first requests. In fact, it took me almost a year to finally obtain a notarized copy of my grandmother’s baptismal certificate. The song Margherita Regina, was written during this period and is about that process of requesting a baptismal certificate from an obstinate church lady. In its essence, the song is a petition to St. Michael, repeated three times, asking for his intervention on behalf of myself and my grandmother, Margherita Regina.
--Paul Burke
Tracklist
| 8. | Margherita Regina | 3:01 |
Lyrics
Send a notarized copy
Of the record in your book
Margherita Regina
1897
There are microfilm originals
Thanks to the Mormons
Send a notarized copy
Of the record in your book
Margherita Regina
Entry number 55
Send a notarized copy
Of the record in your book
Credits
Written and recorded by Paul Burke & Steve Shaheen
Mixed by John Russell
Produced by John Russell & Toy City
Mastered by Joe Lambert
